


For The Moment

by hauntedjaeger (saellys)



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alison and Vanessa: Jaeger Pilots, Alternate Universe, Bechdel Test Pass, Cisgender Characters, F/M, Minor Character Death, Spinoff, Spitefic, Wibbly Wobbly Timeliney Wimeliney Stuff, non-canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-25 00:13:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1622060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saellys/pseuds/hauntedjaeger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is going to be their last deployment for at least seven months. There is one thought that looms over and informs all their other mental preparation as they go to meet Augur. Make it good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For The Moment

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Glimpses of the Seams](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1326580) by [MayQueen517](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayQueen517/pseuds/MayQueen517). 



Seattle, June 2023

“Come on, cut us loose already!” As the skyline grows larger on the horizon, Alison grows more jittery in the 02 cradle. She rolls her shoulders and paces in place. “We gotta get that thing before it reaches the Space Needle.”

“And the rest of the city,” Vanessa reminds her calmly.

“Of course. But _the Space Needle_ , Vanessa.”

There are plumes of smoke in the distance. There’s a fallen Jaeger somewhere in Pioneer Square. It’s not that Alison is unaware, or insensitive to those facts--although, to be fair, she has acted more preoccupied than usual in the last two hours, provided Vanessa isn’t just projecting her own anxiety. Mainly it’s that they’ve had a long time to stand there and do nothing, ever since the Jumphawks tugged Vesta Nebulae skyward when things started to turn sour here, and now a couple of their heroes are out of commission, maybe worse, while a twenty storey nightmare beast is heading inland.

They both need to amp themselves back up, to pick something specific to fight for this time, and that can be the Space Needle. Vanessa understands this the same way she fundamentally and instantly understands many things about her co-pilot, without really thinking about it. “I promise we’ll save the Space Needle. And several million lives.”

“And I promise,” says Tendo in her earpiece, “not to leak this recording to the press. Initiating neural handshake in five, four, three…”

She closes her eyes and lets out the breath she’s been holding. To ease her nerves on the flight over, she chased a RABIT of sorts: the first time Hermann saw Vesta, and stood for a long time staring up at them, and finally put his hand on the angular casing of their left foot, and recited a line of “Eloisa to Abelard”. Alison stared at him in open shock, and said she thought poetry was supposed to be the opposite of mathematics. Hermann suggested she attempt iambic pentameter sometime.

Vanessa keeps the smile on her face, but lets the memory go as the lines between her and Alison blur.

_winter in Kodiak and boots too big, never been so_  
 _cold white flashbulbs and hot studio lights running on no_  
 _sleep in for once and then he’s there with four cups of coffee saying sorry he didn’t get her_  
 _any chance to get away from the diplomats’ table and actually he’s rather_  
 _attractive offer and it’s not like she’s doing anything better so why not enlist and make a_  
 _change backstage with six hands yanking Versace off her and then look down to_

_see two lines on a piece of plastic_  
 _because the smell of engine grease isn't supposed to make her sick_  
 _and the commissary thought she was joking when she asked for the test_  
 _but they shut up when they saw the look in her eyes_  
 _and damn it’s cold in this bathroom has she ever been so_

Vanessa surfaces, gasping, and before she can stop herself, blurts, “Son of a--”

“Whoa, whoa there Vesta, you wanna let me know what’s going on?”

 _Not yet_. There’s no telling whose head that came from. Vanessa looks to her left, and after a moment, Alison meets her eyes. Vanessa fundamentally and instantly understands several new things.

First, how much Alison wants this. Second, that she had no time to tell anyone, not even Vanessa, before the Breach opened that morning. Third, there was no one else to send--Chrome Brutus is in the middle of a knee replacement, and Diablo Intercept got all her relays fried by Phorogoth.

Fourth, there is nowhere she would rather be.

“My bad,” Alison says for LOCCENT’s benefit. “Are we clear for the drop?”

“You’re back in alignment and stable at ninety-seven percent,” Tendo admits, sounding reluctant. “Anchors aweigh.”

The V-50s release their cables, and Vanessa and Alison brace themselves. Waves roll out from Vesta Nebulae’s impact in Puget Sound. They straighten, feet planted wide, and scan the shoreline.

Augur knows they’re there. The heads-up display shows a kaiju signature weaving with surprising delicacy back through Queen Anne. It stops where they can see it, and roars a challenge.

“Hi to you too, you little shit,” Alison sneers. She and Vanessa hold out their left hand, an invitation to dance, and damn if the overgrown toad doesn’t waddle right down to the waterfront.

This is going to be their last deployment for at least seven months. There is one thought that looms over and informs all their other mental preparation as they go to meet Augur. _Make it good_.

For the Gage twins in Romeo Blue. For Yuna and So-Yi. For Yancy and Raleigh. For Tendo, for Hermann, for Flynn, for the Marshal, for the Icebox, for Kodiak and sure, what the hell, for England’s green and pleasant land. 

For the moment they decided to blow off some steam on the Kwoon. For the moment they Drifted. For the moment they stepped into Vesta, and the moment they’ll do it again next year. For the moment Alison will meet her child. Make it good.

Don’t let it get any momentum in the water. Sidestep, nimble, when it tries to flank. Jab for the eyes, miss, damn. It’s too bulky on the sides for their punches to do any good, too armored along the back; it slips away and circles in again. Pain, left calf, that fucker has teeth and it’s not letting go, no matter how many times they hit it. It starts to shake its head, a dog worrying a bone, and that must be how it brought Romeo down. If they lose their balance and fall in the bay, that's it. Those thick scaly ridges at the back of the head, though, they’re just the right size to grab--

So Vanessa does, and twists, and holds on as Augur thrashes in the water, counting down while Alison charges the plasma cannon, and then Vanessa pulls, feels the tear in their left calf as she drags Augur’s jaws up, feels it double from Alison. She wrenches her shoulder, holding Augur’s head out of the water, but she doesn’t have to keep it like that long, because Alison sticks the muzzle of Vesta’s Plasmacaster right under Augur’s chin and fires once.

They catch their breath. It was good. They share an image, of hauling Augur’s carcass all the way to Mount St. Helens and stuffing it in, but that would be what the PPDC terms a “waste of xenobiological assets,” and it’s frowned upon. Anyway, there’s something more important they need to do.

They leave the dead kaiju in the bay and walk east to Pioneer Square while LOCCENT buzzes in their ears. A Jaeger lying in recovery position is all wrong, unnatural in every way, and Vanessa feels Alison’s distress at the sight as keenly as her own. The rescue crews have been working even while Augur was still in the city, and they got Romeo Blue’s Conn-Pod open sometime during the fight. They’re too late. The emergency response vehicles leave with their lights off.

Vesta’s right hand rises in a salute, and after a few moments they turn and step away so the Jumphawks can lift them out of there. The Pons powers down, and they are back in their own heads.

“Tendo,” Alison says, interrupting a litany of efficiency reports, “I have something to tell you." 

“Ali, honey, I found it in the trash this morning. We’re breaking out the cigars--even the Marshal is lighting up. I’ll try to have the smoke cleared out by the time you’re back.”

“You didn’t say anything, you jerk?” It's half a sob. The convolution of the circumstance dawns on Alison in the same instant Vanessa snorts with mirth. This is too much to feel all at once.

The sound in Vanessa’s earpiece could be a burst of static, or it might be Tendo blowing a raspberry. “I could have stopped you? Please. Listen, there’s probably going to be a party and I’d hate for you to be late. Hermann is insisting we call you both the Space Needle Champions or something, damned if I know. I’ll meet you in the mess hall.”

“Spill a drop for Romeo,” Vanessa tells him, feeling tears on her cheeks, and an ache in her jaw from smiling so bloody hard. 

“I will, from the good stuff. Come home, ladies.”

They follow the setting sun all the way back.

**Author's Note:**

> The cadence of Drift memories blending into each other was yoinked straight out of [Icarus](http://archiveofourown.org/works/919026) by starkraving.
> 
> The line Hermann recites from "Eloisa to Abelard" is _How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!_
> 
> _England's green and pleasant land_ is from William Blake's "Jerusalem". 
> 
> You damn well know the Gottliebs recite poetry at each other.


End file.
